Aalders One-Name Study

Study details

About the study

The name AALDERS is not common. The name is more dominant in The Netherlands. However the origin appears to most likely be around Oldenberg in Lower Saxony.

I traced my patrilineal pedigree back to Johannes Christoffel AALDERS, who died in Amsterdam before 15 July 1832[1]. I cannot find a record of his place or date of birth. He fathered a child in 1806, making his probable date of birth between 1770 – 1790.

The Dutch genealogist[2] I consulted, and several other researchers suggested that ‘our’ Aalders originated around Oldenburg and were Dutch Reformed (Oude Kirk) and later Evangelical Lutheran. Their nationality and religion would have put them ‘on the wrong side’ during the Napoleonic Wars (1803 – 1820) and many Aalders may well have migrated south from Lower Saxony to the more tolerant Netherlands.

[1] I was given his wife’s family lineage running back to prior to 1623 (marriage record)

Variant names

The surname AALDERS has many derivations including Alhardt, Alhart, Adelhard, Aldhard, Alerdt, Alert, Ahlers (in Hochdeutsch) and Alers (Plattdeutsch) and the Dutch Adelhart. After about 1500 AD, the son of Alert became Alertss or Alerts, which quickly developed into Alers and Aalders or Alders in the Netherlands.

Name origin

According to genealogical specialists, Alhardt and its many derivatives occurred most frequently in a small, north-western part of Germany in Niedersachsen or the old Duchy of Oldenburg as well as the eastern provinces of the Netherlands.

German genealogist, Dr. Joseph Maehlmann[1], believes the Aalders family can safely assume that their antecedents were resident farmers in the days of Charlemagne and that Evorhund of Farnthorpe and his four sons, Dyrick ten Verhorn, Clawes ten Verhorn, Eybe ten Verhorn and Ahlard ten Verhorn were not only the patriarchs of the Alers families but also many other local farming families in the Oldenburg district. This premise is reinforced by the huge decline in the local population in the ‘Dark Ages’ through plague, disease, war, fire and plunder along with the extremely sparse population of the area at the time and the current population [90] of the village [Varnheusen?] in the early 21st century.

The earliest appearance of the name Alerdt (Aalders) occurs in 770-799 AD. Alerdt farmed in the Hogenboegen (Community) farm in Varnheusen, 1.2 km north of Visbek in southern Oldenburg. His only neighbours were [1] Tole to Boghen, [2] Meijer, [3] Janluers (Jan Luers?), [4] Hinrich to Bogen and [5] Dirich Arendes. During Saxon times, this was the entire Varnheusen community and this community was communally owned. Over time, these families spread out to inhabit Visbek, Erite, Varnhorn, Hoegenboegen, Spreda, Langfoerden, Lohne, Oythe, Bakum, Vechta and Siedenbogen. Today, it is known as the Vechta ‘Landkreiss’ [or larger Vechta district]. This was a closely-knit community because there are a number of Meijers, Tholes, JanLuers, Toenjes and Borscher spouses amongst Alerdts descendants – the Alers, Ahlers, or Aleress of the Vechta ‘Landkreiss’.

Professor Doctor Clemens Pagenstert’s[2] research into the farming families of the Vechta ‘Landkreiss’ states this Varnheusen farming community existed in 1000 AD and continued to live in this area in 1200 AD and 1395 AD. The families appear to be ‘stayers’ because they had inheritable farming rights. Alerdt’s descendants still lived on farms in Hogenboegen and Varnhorn in 2009. This supports the contention that these families very likely inhabited Varnheusen in the 770 to 800 AD eras.

Taxation records researched by Professor Pagenstert identify Alerdt as a tax contributor to the Corvey Abbey as early as 1000 AD and again in 1200 AD. Taxpayers recorded on Land Records disclose that the Thole [Tole] family paid tax to the Catholic Abbey in 1501 AD [Tole to Boghen], 1545 AD [Dirich Tole] and 1568 AD [Johann Tolen]. Professor Pagenstert asserts that the farms had become family possessions by this time as Thole, Meijer and Alerdt (Aalders) were “Zinnspflichtige” with an “inheritable right” to pay tax to the Abbott.

Professor Pagenstert claims that the very first taxpaying ‘Alerts’ on record were patriarchs of the families from which the Meijer and Ahlers families sprung and it was not until the 16th century that they become distinguishable in their own right. In his research, Professor Pagenstert was dealing with ‘taxpayers’ with just a single name, thus the farmer of the Alers family, who paid tax in 1600 AD was the only convenient tool to trace back earliest recorded owners and ascribe them as the owners of the Alers farm. Professor Pagenstert postulates that the identified ancestor was the occupier of what became a particular family’s farm at a later point in time.

This is clearly the case with the Alers family. Alerdt to Varnheusen created an Alers family in Hogenboegen and Johan Alert established the Varnhorn family farm. Both went to church in Visbek. Alert to Sledehuesen lived on and owned 8 acres outside current Scheledhausen in 1540 and attended the Roman Catholic Church in Bakum. There is no evidence of this land holding a century later. Alert to Aschehuesen created one of the Lutheran Ahlers families from Aschausen, near Zwischenahn circa 1390 AD.

The Ahlers living in the southern part of Oldenburg remained predominantly Catholic throughout the centuries. This distinguishes them from the majority of Ahlers families who lived in the northern enclaves of the then Duchy of Oldenburg who were of the Lutheran faith. This distinction was the outcome of a law which imposed the religious denomination of his lord and master on the ordinary man, so the local farmer had little say about which church he attended and to what extent he was expected

[1] Genealogical memberships: Oldenburgische Gesellschaft für Familienkunde, Familienkundlicher Arbeitskreis and Oldenburger Muensterland, Osnabruecker family research, association for coat of arms and family history in Wuerttemberg and Baden, association for computer genealogy and in the federation of German-speaking professional genealogists

Historical occurrences of the name

Christoffel AALDERS was one of the few Europeans killed in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He was taken as a POW in Dutch East Indies - now Indonesia. His name appears on the Nagasaki Memorial

Aldert Aalders was a captain of the VOC (Dutch East India Company ship) "Oudkarspel" 1150 tonne Built 1744 to Batavia via the Cape of Good Hope between 25/2/1764-1/9/1764

Wilem J Aalders of the Dutch Underground was executed 02-10-1944 for sabotaging German operations during Operation Market Garden.

More to follow...

Name frequency

To follow:

The distribution if taken from the Forebears.io website. I am seeking permission to re-use with appropriate acknowledgement of the source but cannot re-connect to the Forenears.io website at present.. Note the distribution is by number and by ratio. A good number of the AALDERS in Australia and England are related to my family.

Location Occurence Ratio 1 to:

Netherlands

2,224

1:7,583

Canada

213

1:166,326

Germany

168

1:480,453

United States

110

1:2,191,547

Australia

78

1:302,131

Belgium

59

1:189,866

England

43

1:1,255,814

New Zeland

21

1:216,512

Denmark

2

1:2,819,860

Hungary

2

1:4,939,500

Occurences

Ration 1 to:

Netherlands

2,224

7583

Canada

213

166326

Belgium

59

189,866

New Zeland

21

216,512

Australia

78

302,131

Germany

168

480453

England

43

1,255,814

United States

110

2,191,547

Denmark

2

2,819,860

Hungary

2

4,939,500

Distribution of the name

See Frequency which shows the distribution is most heavily centred in Netherlands followed by Canada. Genealogical studies show that Aalders migrated to Canada to the extent there is an town called Aaldersville in Nova Scotia. Details of the Aalders association can be found at: